We’ve recently taken another look at the rate of Honor gains in various Battlegrounds, and have concluded that current Honor gains in several Battlegrounds are currently too low. To that end, we’ll be making several changes to the way that Honor bonuses are rewarded in those battlegrounds, as follows:

In Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, and Eye of the Storm, we’ll be increasing the frequency at which you’ll be rewarded bonus Honor based on the points your team has earned. Currently, you earn bonus Honor every 260 points (or 200 if that battleground is the current Call to Arms) in these battlegrounds. As a part of this adjustment, we’re going to lower the number to 130 (or 100 during Call to Arms).

We’re also making a similar change to Silvershard Mines. Currently bonus Honor is earned for every 265 points (or every 160 if Silvershard is the current Call to Arms). After the change, you’ll earn bonus Honor every 200 points (or 130 during Call to Arms).

Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks are getting a slightly different treatment. Because these matches tend to take longer than the above Battlegrounds (which directly effects the rate at which you earn Honor from playing them) we wanted to make some changes to speed them up a bit. To do this we’re going to apply the Focused Assault debuff 1 minute after both flags have been picked up, which is 2 minutes earlier than it does currently. Once it’s begun to apply, it will continue to increase at the current rate of 1 stack every minute. On top of that, we’re adding a new bonus at the end of the match: For every flag you prevent the opposing team from capturing (so, every flag under 3), you’ll earn 18 extra Honor.

Lastly, in Strand of the Ancients, we’re doubling the bonus a team earns for destroying a gate (or preventing it from being destroyed).

These hotfixes are currently in production, and will be applied as soon as they are ready. We’ll have an update in the official Hotfix blog once they’re active. We look forward to seeing you on the fields of battle!

From my interpretation, I doubt this hotfix affects reputation gains as they are not trying to change that, only honor gains.
Correct, these fixes only apply to Honor gains.

Will this be in rated as well?
The Focused Assault change applies to Rated Warsong and Twin Peaks matches as well, yes.

Warlords of Draenor - Stat Squish

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

This is insane, we all know that, but why did blizzard do it to begin with considering they knew for years things are getting out of control?

In simple terms: getting upgrades feels good. An exponential curve of player power inflation via item levels is fully understood and expected as getting loot that is better than your current loot is much of the tangible reward structure in the game. There is a "How much better does it need to be to feel like an upgrade?" factor, and while those specifics have changed over the years the philosophy remains the same. We could change how the game works, and your character's progression could be rewarded in other ways, but World of Warcraft is kind of all about being an awesome hero and slaying giant dragons to take their sweet loots. Regardless of the rate of inflation it is still inflation if people's gear is getting better, and we'll end up at a squish sooner or later if the inflation is having an unmitigatable effect. In this case it took about 10 years to get there.

Warlords of Draenor - System Changes

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Removing burst, removing CC, removing disarm, removing stats, etc etc.Scary? Why would it be scary to have less things to do, less choices to make?
A wise man once said a game is a series of interesting choices. For some the takeaway from that is more choices mean a better game. In general I see the Blizzard approach as a focus on emphasizing what an interesting choice is. Interesting choices can offer depth and complexity without needing to be numerous and overwhelming for the sake of being overwhelming. It's easy to throw all of the paint on the floor and say it's done. It's far more difficult to properly mix, and restrain, and balance elements. Looking at chess, there are relatively few pieces with few "abilities", it's a near-infinitely deep and complex game, and strategies for it continue to evolve even hundreds of years later. Certainly someone could introduce dozens of new chess pieces, dozens of new choices, and there would be some subset of players who would enjoy it more purely due to an increase in complexity.

Over time as new systems are introduced to WoW, others are removed, and iteration happens on current mechanics, these things tend to become more complex at no fault of their own. I think any designer would agree that it's not the fault of the player that the game's systems get more and more complex over time as changes are made. It's a snowball effect for sure, and it's not the player's fault when things get out of control over years and years of patches and iteration and inflation of complexity. It's just difficult to predict what the game will be like a few years from now, and only approaching design from that future-angle would likely mean less active design to help address current issues (something we wouldn't want to do). But at the very least we can recognize when we need to reevaluate the corner we've painted ourselves into, can enact that change in an intelligent way that makes the game better, and ideally be able to explain clearly why we're making it.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Proving Grounds Balance
A couple things to quickly point out before I run to a meeting:

A fresh level 90 in quest greens could clear all Heroic raids. Being present for a boss kill is not the same as personal competence, so it's not a particularly compelling argument against Proving Grounds being able to measure skill. Not saying you're getting carried or anything of the sort, but being wholly reliant on yourself vs. being a part of a group is just a different dynamic.

But secondly we do understand there are some balancing challenges for Proving Grounds which we do intend to address for Warlords. There are scaling difficulties that will be overcome partly by stat changes happening in the expansion, but those that aren't we'll ensure are tuned appropriately. Our goal is not to intentionally keep any class or spec from being able to achieve Silver if the person playing them is playing them well. Endless is intended to be a brutally difficult challenge of skill, Silver is just supposed to show you have a pulse and a general understanding of your class. It's Captcha of dungeon queuing. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warlords of Draenor - Watercooler FeedbackI thought it was a great article on "why". I think the dissapointment people are showing is that they expected more if "what" is changing.
To a large extent, those that have been avid readers on the forums are already well informed; having been following every bit of information that has come out (and conveniently forgotten the parts that actually were new).

This is part of a test for the new formatting that we're going to be trying out for patch notes minus the patch notes. When this gets paired with the patch notes it should provide much better context for the changes and avoid a large part of the /angry when people have no idea why X or Y got changed the way it did.

For others, the compiled info is a great way to get up to speed on what's happening so far and what's coming down the pipeline. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

ClassesIn other words, the heck does Chaos Damage even mean?
No. Chaos Damage is damage whose school time is Fire+Frost+Nature+Arcane+Shadow+Holy+Physical. Uses Lowest of those resists. (Celestalon)
(In this context, Armor is effectively Physical Resist) (Celestalon)Alright, so only gets reduced if Armor is the lowest resist, cheers!
Yeah, which would basically be impossible to have happen in any reasonable situation. Maybe a naked Paladin with Divine Protection. (Celestalon)Pretty much, or if a boss takes less magic damage somehow perhaps?
Yeah, though I can't recall the last time we did something like that. (Celestalon)and what about divine star? Divine heal
Divine = Holy+Arcane, though we're considering changing that in Warlords; it feels out of place. (Celestalon)what is the goal of chaos and divine school? magic resist are gone at this moment
Flavor. (Celestalon)Ok, can you explain me why CHAOS bolt is shadow damage and not chaos?^^
Because the gameplay effect of it being chaos was more detrimental than the upside of the flavor... (Celestalon)
...That being that if you got interrupted while casting a Chaos school spell, it locks out *ALL* spells. (Celestalon)In the future since Crit Damage is reduced against players, Can we see the Chaos Bolt PvP nerf removed?Feels like CB won't hit hard
We'll tune appropriately under those conditions when the time comes. (holinka)

Reply to In order for the tank to do more dmg they have to be tanking, can't have everyone tanking so why would you bring tanks?
Tanks will no longer have to be tanking in order to do near full damage. (Celestalon)

What I'm saying is, in short, why not shoot for balance within a class at least on most situations?
We shoot for balance across all classes. Just because two specs of a class are overpowered, doesn't mean the 3rd is underpowered (Celestalon)Shouldn't there at least be a middle trend in inner-class balance though? E.g., Frost mages probably OP, but (c)
No, we compare specs to all of the other specs, not just specs of the same class. (Celestalon)So, Class vs. Class > Spec vs. spec overall, then? I can see it but it bothers me as an advocate of playstyle choice.
I think the point that you're missing is that one encapsulates the other. We want Specs to be balanced, INCLUDING vs same class. (Celestalon)

ArtWill spell cast animations while holding weapons/staves be added with the model rework or considered for the future?
That was seriously considered once (LOOONG ago) and fell off the table; could always come up again! (Dave_Maldo)

Weapons as big as possible? Comment may be ill-placed but Draenei & Blood Elf girls would like to have a word with you.
Some race/gender combos were intentionally kept smaller. It was a conscious Art Direction call. Not debating; just explaining. (Dave_Maldo)

Warlords of Draenor StatsWith parry and dodge being removed, what do you plan to compensate warrior's revenge procs ?
They're only removed from gear, not removed as concepts. (Celestalon)I read that STR continues to increase parry. Will we have a way to increase dodge or will it stay static?
Undecided. Class abilities likely to increase at least one of them. (Celestalon)why continue removing stats like this? hasn't theorycrafting proven its value to community development?
We're actually adding stats. We're making sure stats are more widely useful and fun. (Celestalon)please make all stats for all specs much more equal in wod. Don't want what should be an upgrade to feel bad.
Yes, making all stats much closer in value is planned for WoD. (Celestalon)

Not sure if you'd be the person to ask this to, but will hunter pets inherit new stats such as life steal, and will it heal pet
Yes. (Celestalon)

PvPhttp://t.co/AIFcY64D6H the mmr is messed up but it isn't really pilots like he points out.
The MMR system received a lot of attention in 5.4.7 to address this issue & known exploits. Looking forward to seeing it live. (holinka)

Will crit be 150% all the time or just in PvP?
Just in PvP. Likewise Multistrike will only get 1 extra roll against players (instead of 2 against monsters). (holinka)

Please no random queue arenas. Matchmaking content (LFR) is so toxic as is because gear isn’t a good incentive to cooperate well
I agree there are big challenges there. (holinka)

Why not use more ilvl budget on +stam in WoD PvP? Makes PvP gear mandatory to survive burst.
That last sentence is why. Get a lot more complaints about dying super fast than not being able to kill someone. (holinka)

As previously announced, we’ve been working toward connecting realms to increase the number of players on low-population realms, and since then have completed several connections. As a part of our ongoing communication, we wanted to provide you with an update that contains a list of completed realm connections, currently planned connections, and any additional future plans in one convenient location.

*Please note this list does not encompass all potential future connections. Please check back for further updates.

Future Connections
We will be connecting the realms listed below on Thursday, March 6 [/b]during a scheduled maintenance beginning at 5 a.m. PST through approximately 1:00 p.m. PST. Once maintenance is finished, these realm connections will be complete.

Drak'thul and Skywall

Eredar and Gorefiend/Wildhammer/Spinebreaker

Ghostlands and Kael'thas

Thunderlord and Azgalor/Azshara/Destromath

We will be connecting the realms listed below on Thursday, March 13 during a scheduled maintenance beginning at 5 a.m. PST through approximately 1:00 p.m. PST. Once maintenance is finished, these realm connections will be complete.

Borean Tundra and Shadowsong

Dreadmaul and Thaurissan

Exodar and Medivh

Scarlet Crusade and Feathermoon

We do not have a date for the following realm connections, but will update this post when we do.

*Plans for these connections may change at any time, but we’ll provide additional updates on specific dates for future connections here as we can. Please note that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other.

I don't trust them on the soloing old content. I think they'll mess it up. If WoD comes out and people are having issues with old content the forums will explode in chaos and anarchy. I look forward to this day. /popcorn

I don't trust them on the soloing old content. I think they'll mess it up. If WoD comes out and people are having issues with old content the forums will explode in chaos and anarchy. I look forward to this day. /popcorn

What you mean like every single time blizzard do even the slightest change?

Looking at chess, there are relatively few pieces with few "abilities",
it's a near-infinitely deep and complex game,
and strategies for it continue to evolve even hundreds of years later.
Certainly someone could introduce dozens of new chess pieces,
dozens of new choices,
and there would be some subset of players who would enjoy it more purely due to an increase in complexity.

Excellent response . It is exactly this. You don't need hundreds of abilities and complex rotations to make a game deep and difficult. As for CC abilities, is one of the reasons I stopped playing pvp. Not that I could not handle the cc abilities or counter them, but it wasn't fun for me. I had more fun in vanilla unbalanced pvp that I had last 3 expansions. I have fun on GW2 zergs in WvW (it has CC there but it is a massive zerg that is fun for me and considering how many people do it, is fun for others also).

Hmmm why do i smell another crap like Cata?? Exept Warlocks other clases was realy close to eachother for the first time !! and insted to go that weay thay ar goin to f...p things again ......I have a shockin news for Blizz devs it is not PvP whot make this game succesful if you mes tu much with PvE you ar goin to the exacly same point where Cata was Ar you guys not lerning anything from the past ??

Because everyone would then be the same? This mmo would turn into a simple minded Xbox game? All choices, uniqueness, would go away, everyone would be the same, and it would be boring.

It already is boring, I fall asleep during looking for raid while leveling. So terrible.

Seems to be that many people that post here use a different counting system than the real world. As in, like there are no numbers between 4 and 40. Just because they are removing some abilities, doesn't mean WoW is becoming a console game.

PvE rotations for most classes will be nearly identical to they are today as most rotations (or more accurately, priority queues) are quite limited ins cope, where this really effects people is in PvP where 30+ keybinds is practically necessary for most classes, and that is before we get into things like focus and Arena 1,2,3 macros.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Quakefan

DO NOT REMOVE CC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- - - Updated - - -

don`r remove CC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CC is still in the game, they are just removing the ridiculous abundance of it that emerged in MoP. Losing control of your character for very long stretches of times even if you trinket isn't a fun experience for anyone.

I don't trust them on the soloing old content. I think they'll mess it up. If WoD comes out and people are having issues with old content the forums will explode in chaos and anarchy. I look forward to this day. /popcorn

Why do you think they'll mess up old content being soloable? They already said that alongside the stat squish they'll be making a change that buffs you against content you out level, which'll make it even easier to solo than it currently is.